Art: 20th-Century Vermeer

When one Hans van Meegeren, a little-known Dutch Nazi painter, owned to
forging seven recently "discovered" Vermeers (TIME, July 30), art
experts laughed him off as a nut. They had reason to: the masterpieces
had been painstakingly authenticated by them, by chemical, X-ray and
infra-red tests.

Last week, while awaiting trial in an Amsterdam jail (for collaboration
with the Nazis), van Meegeren was under close watch by the art experts
themselves, whose own prestige was involved. To their amusement, then
to their stupefaction, he was painting another "Vermeer."

The Netherlands Government's official information service described the
scene: "He called for brushes, paints and...